Composite Soldering, De-Soldering Station and System

Abstract

A soldering and de-soldering station and systems including enhanced features for the soldering heating tools, load detection functionality, tip management, automatic tip temperature calibration, cartridge/handle position and movement sensing and interactive capabilities.

1 . A system for use in solder operations comprising:
 a control station;   at least one soldering cartridge including a heater and a temperature sensor in a tip of said soldering cartridge, the temperature of said soldering cartridge controlled by said control station from feedback of said temperature sensor; and   a temperature measurement device physically separated from said control station and said soldering cartridge wherein a comparison of the temperature measurement device temperature measurement and a temperature measured by said temperature sensor in said tip of said cartridge determines whether the temperature of the tip has been successfully calibrated, and wherein the comparison result of either PASS or FAIL is stored in a memory as the calibration result.   
     
     
         2 . The system for use in solder operations of  claim 1 , wherein said calibration result is stored in a memory of said control station. 
     
     
         3 . The system for use in solder operations of  claim 1 , wherein said calibration result is stored in a memory of said cartridge. 
     
     
         4 . The system for use in solder operations of  claim 1 , further comprising a leak voltage detector, wherein a leak voltage is measured and recorded as said calibration result. 
     
     
         5 . The system for use in solder operations of  claim 1 , further comprising a tip to ground resistance measuring device, wherein a tip to ground resistance is measured and recorded in a memory as said calibration result 
     
     
         6 . The system for use in solder operations of  claim 1 , wherein said PASS or FAIL calibration result and a calculated offset value is recorded to a memory of said cartridge. 
     
     
         7 . The system for use in solder operations of claim  19 , wherein said PASS/FAIL calibration result and a calculated offset value is recorded to a memory of said control station. 
     
     
         8 . The system for use in solder operations of  claim 1 , wherein said control station further comprises a central processing unit and operations programs, said control station further including an output interface allowing said control station to be connected to a host machine to allow said control station to output temperature calibration data to said host machine and receive instructions from said host machine. 
     
     
         9 . The system for use in solder operations of  claim 1 , wherein when a temperature signal from said thermometer is out of range of an acceptable range of the temperature, the control station calculates an offset value. 
     
     
         10 . The system for use in solder operations of  claim 9 , wherein when said calculated offset value is within an acceptable range, a control program within said control station controls the temperature of said soldering cartridge based upon the calculated offset value. 
     
     
         11 . The system for use in solder operations of  claim 1 , wherein an operation program in said control station records at least one of said PASS/FAIL calibration result or a calculated offset value for said at least one cartridge to a memory in said control station.